One of the problems with being a type-A obsessive compulsive about my work is that it gets in the way of being a type-A obsessive compulsive with my kids.  In the long run, while money is nice, time spent with the kids is the real currency of life.  In that vein, here’s my list of the Top Ten Things I Wish I’d Done in 2008:

1. I wish I’d taken the kids to Disney World.  Let’s face it, I’m a bad dad.  The kids have gotten to a full decade and I haven’t taken them to the Mecca of Kiddom.
2. I wish I’d been able to take more vacation time with the kids. I was laid off in 2007 and didn’t get full time work until the very last day of the year.  That was on contract, so I didn’t start accruing vacation time until Memorial Day.  If I’d really been thinking, I’d have worked out a way to take more time off.
3. I wish I’d spent more time fishing with the kids. It’s the sport I shared with my father and grandfather and I need to spend more time sharing it with them.
4. I wish I’d realized earlier in the year how much my daughters are starting to grow up. They’ve learned to appreciate a real discussion with their father and their fathers friends.  Somehow I had deluded myself into seeing them as 6 year olds, and they haven’t been that age for several years.
5. I wish I’d replaced my small pickup with something the kids and I can be comfortable in. Too many trips started off with someone getting sent to the penalty box for elbowing before we arrived at the destination.  And too many times I had to utter the infamous words “Don’t make me stop this truck…”
6. I wish I’d taken the time to stay at horse riding lessons and watch the girls more instead of running errands.
7. I wish we’d read together more and used the Playstation less.
8. I wish I understood more how to reach my eldest daughter who has Asperger’s Syndrome.
9. I wish I could better explain to my youngest daughter how much I appreciate that she is patient with her older sister, who doesn’t always understand social situations.
10. I wish that I took better care of myself and stopped trading my health for dollars by working like a dog. That translates into having more time in the long term to spend with my children.

It’s sounds pretty bad on the surface.  Yet I’m a glass half full kind of guy, so I pledge to turn that list around and make it my self-improvement list for the coming year.

One funny thing, while I wrote that list, I didn’t think once about how I should spend more time in the office.  Imagine that…but then I guess I’m not writing this for “Work-o-matic”.

(Mark Cahill blogs at http://www.allthingscahill.com on tech, social media, and online marketing)